Although the harvesting technique for each surgery is different, the process for both the ARTAS and the MUHG procedure is very much the same. The only significant difference is the MUHG procedure requires much less time than the ARTAS procedure.

A thin area only about 1.25 cm (think popsicle stick) of hair on the sides and back of the head will be trimmed. This allows us to carefully harvest 1 to 1.20 cm of donor tissue to be harvested. Immediately following the procedure any evidence of the trimmed area can easily be concealed with the surrounding hair.

During the procedure, hair is harvested from the back and sides of the head in a thin 1 to 1.2 cm section – typically about the width of a Popsicle stick. Then the area where the hair is harvested is gently drawn back together and closed with a stitch. The stitch is easily hidden under your hair. (We recommend about 3/4 of an inch or longer hair length for the day of the procedure. The longer the better.

With Multi-Unit Hair grafting procedures there are no bandages after the procedure. Your suture is generally removed from 8 to 10-days following the procedure. You can have your sutures removed in the Nashville center or closer to home.

Under magnified or microscopic conditions small single hairs, follicular units and multiple follicular units are harvested from the donor tissue. Unlike FUE here the donor tissue can be placed on it’s side making it easier to harvest the hairs from the tissue without damaging them. This is especially true if the patient has much wave or curl to the hair. Hairs that have a lot of curl or wave are difficult to harvest with most follicular unit extraction devices and nipping or damaging of the hairs can occur. With Multi-Unit Hair Grafting this is practically eliminated.

For both our traditional FUT MUHG and the ARTAS procedure, the doctor artistically creates recipient sites so the harvested hair (think very short hair attached to a hair seed) can be transplanted into thinning areas. Once the transplanted hairs, with hair seeds, are placed in your thinning or balding areas they will begin to “take-root.” Generally, the hairs will separate from the hair seeds and shed within a few weeks following the procedure. Then, the transplanted hair seeds, which are transplanted beneath the skin surface, will begin making and growing new hairs. These new hairs will begin appearing 3 to 5-months after the procedure.

It’s been said that the most difficult part of a hair transplant procedure is waiting 12 months for the hair to grow. The biggest thing to remember is that everyone is different so growth varies between patients. Typically you will begin to see new growth at 3 or 4 months. More and more of your hair seeds will start to grown each month. So your new hair grows in gradually and naturally over the 12 months following your procedure.

ARTAS: Once the procedure begins thousands of your hairs will be very delicately and precisely selected by the physician with the aid of the ARTAS robotic computer mapping program. Once the best hairs in the map are identified, the robotic system will carefully and accurately isolate the hair or small group of hairs. It will then gently and precisely dissect out the hairs. These are the hairs for transplanting into the thinning areas on top of the head. The robotic system is very careful to only select the ideal hairs for your specific case. When compared to more traditional FUE procedures, the robot has been estimated to be up to 1,000 times more accurate than a human’s hand.

Typically there is an overabundance of permanent hairs in the donor region. In essence, the system allows us to more uniformly redistribute the permanent hairs for better more accurate coverage without leaving a linear scar in the donor area.

Although the ARTAS has already carefully harvested the follicles from the donor area, the surgeon and hair transplant technicians must carefully examine each hair to make sure there is no transection to the hair bulb or damage to the surrounding tissue.

For both our traditional FUT MUHG and the ARTAS procedure, the doctor artistically creates recipient sites so the harvested hair (think very short hair attached to a hair seed) can be transplanted into thinning areas. Once the transplanted hairs, with hair seeds, are placed in your thinning or balding areas they will begin to “take-root.” Generally, the hairs will separate from the hair seeds and shed within a few weeks following the procedure. Then, the transplanted hair seeds, which are transplanted beneath the skin surface, will begin making and growing new hairs. These new hairs will begin appearing 3 to 5-months after the procedure.

It’s been said that the most difficult part of a hair transplant procedure is waiting 12 months to see all the hair grown in. The biggest thing to remember is that everyone is different so growth varies between patients. Typically you will begin to see new growth at 3 or 4 months. More and more of your hair seeds will start to grown each month. So your new hair grows in gradually and naturally over the 12 months following your procedure.